Masquerade
by Holoxd
Summary: Treeck Harckness, a 17 years old guy who was deceived to play a death game by a girl called Holo. To win this game, the player has to reach level 100 by doing 1vs1, or obtaining the artifacts from the 4 main cities. Treeck was at top of the ladders on other games, but now his life is on the line. Who to trust and who not to trust? The wrongs decisions will lead to his own death...


p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongPrologue/strong/p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Treeck was looking at the items that he just won from being first place on Brawl, an arena ladder where the player needs to touch a target, while being attacked.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"A Companion, a Weapon Enchant, ten Underworld Ingots and a special item to start a quest... as Treeck was thinking, with a strong elegant orange glowing in each of the items, showing the highest rarity you can have that everyone want so much.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I hope this shitty companion sells for a good value..., junk like this has no impact in a game where you live or you die, however, the other ones might be useful... I need to ask Holo." Treeck knew Holo would know, after all, she is level 62 or 63, he didn't remember very well "She will get mad at me for coming to the arena..." Treeck thought with a bad feeling "Well I think the prize will atone that."p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Treeck touched the red X, closing the reward window, and automatically going to the inventory, he didn't have much items, tier 1 gear that he used until level 7 and the new legendaries. He also had tier 2 gear, but it was equipped, dark leather armour and two short swords, he preferred those because he liked being nimble, although Treeck wasn't certain about the swords, they were too light? Or maybe he preferred long swords over short swords, but then he wouldn't have mobility. He was still deciding.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"In front of him was the huge Action House of Loranak, one of the most important and famous building of the game, in terms economics, it was the most important one. "At least to go to this Brawl I only need to apply on the menu from one of the four main empires, and also, the Action House is just in front of me hehe, lets see if any of these items are being sold." Treeck started climbing the ladder, in just 10 seconds he was at the entrance.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"It was the his third time there, but no matter how many times he entered, he would be always fascinated with the ornament. Bots that looked like players, with collars full of gems and jewels, they wore long golden tunics that crawled on the floor, leaving a majestic golden trail. Yellow Stripes on the top of the walls, brighter than the sun, with latin words written on them, emaurum argentum cuprum. emGolden pedestals with jars on the top, spilling golden coins, these coins would never end, so everyone thought they were infinite, you can pick up these coins but it wouldn't be accepted by anyone, the cash in this game is in Torns, so they would be useless./p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The Action House was crowded with so many people that they were having issues getting to the trade bots, not only it was crowded but also noisy, people doing deals in one corner of the room, others yelling, trying to sell their items directly, to avoid the Action House taxes.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Treeck liked to view all the different masks that everyone used. Red, Blue, Black, White, Grey, some of them exotic, others ridiculous, but they had all the same purpose, to hide identity, Treeck's mask wasn't different, a strong darkened red below the left eye and his mouth and above the right eye too, a blackish blue over the left eye and below the right eye, and also a vestige on the left edge, but there was also a stain of black above the mouth, neither of these colours had a trace of light, but a trace of obscure.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Treeck reached one of the many trade bots that were there, he places his hand on a small platform, so the bot can recognize who is the player, to check if there is an update on an auction that was being sold by the player, or to control the bids. Treeck just clicked so fast on the menus, it was creating the illusion he was experienced in Action House, although it was just his third time here.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""So... let's type here the companion...where was it... Fuzzy the Flame Bear, here it is," Treeck's expression changed suddenly "strongWHAT THE FUCK!? THIS SHIT IS AT EIGHTY THOUSAND TORNS!?strong"/p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"People started observing him because he was screaming, Treeck noted this and talked very quietly "Ops, I got excited, back to business, this is ridiculous, there is just one person selling, which started 3 days ago and has 2 days left to end, eighty thousand on buyout and fifty thousand on bid, but this bid was already from another player, I wonder who the fool is...so I should sell it more than fifty thousand."p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Treeck goes to the selling tab, and then a window appears with a small box. He grabs the companion from the inventory to the box and starts typing the price on outbid and bid "Seventy thousand should be enough on outbid, on bid mhmm... ill put fifty thousand." a window appeared to conclude the action, telling 5% of the profit would go to the Action House, which Treeck accepted "Now I only need to check out the other items, the quest item and the enchant cant be sold, lets search the ingots."p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Treeck had to check out three times to make sure the name was typed correctly, because there were no one selling them. "Well I didn't aim to sell them, I just wanted to check the price, but it seems there are none. I'll search later about the ingots, they must be important." As Treeck said this, he closed all the tabs and windows and went for the exit, he was more trying to sneak between the players than walking.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He reached the entrance and started going down the stairs, when he listened two players talking about someone who reached rank 41 on Brawl, which was him.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""That guy is a genius, he just jumped from rank 36 to 41 with that dirty trick, the players at the top of the ladder were stuck between 35 and 36 and this guy just jumps 5 levels because he did it with that much time left, who would think something like this would happen?" he asked.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Can we truly call that dirty?" as the other player with a colourful mask was asking to herself "He just used those Reverse gravity with Speed like no one ever did, so instead of doing around fifteen minutes, which is the maximum, he did in three minutes."p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The player that was talking to her who had a very weird mask that reminded one of those horror movies, said deliberating "But the big mystery is, who is he?, I never saw him in any tourney nor brawls, maybe he is a Reseter?"p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Or he just used a different mask" she interrupted "Who knows, one thing we can say for sure, he is rich by now, with the items he won, three legendaries? Maybe four, I'm jealous..."p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Treeck was annoyed with the word "jealous", "If she is jealous why doesn't she try to be better?" to Treeck there is nothing impossible, everything is possible with dedication, although some learn faster than others, and that is what Humans call talent.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Treeck was at the end of the stairs "Already 7PM, time goes so fast in games... Holo said she would be at home around 7, time to go home", Treeck said the words that he started getting used to "Game, Logout!"p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He opens his eyes slowly, every time he disconnected he felt dizzy, silence was the sound he was hearing, the sound that he always hear when he is at home, until some days ago, that girl started living with him. He was getting tired of the silence in the past, but right now, he was enjoying it, in the beginning he didn't like the idea of her staying here, but he started getting used to it. He rose from his bed and left the bedroom.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"His house displayed a European style, two bedrooms and a bathroom between were in the left wing, while the living room and the kitchen take the right wing, the living room was also treated as the dining room, there is also a basement outside, but is never used, stone and bricks walls supported the house, some thickened by an additional layer, for example, thermic insulation. The decoration had vestiges of the middle age, that reminded Treeck of the medieval era, which he actually liked, his parents always preferred the European style, so did he, maybe because he was born in one... This topic reminded him about his parents, which no longer were in this world. Treeck didn't want to remember the past, that already tormented him in his nightmares, by now he reached the living room.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Holo you there?" Treeck called for her but heard nothing, sometimes she would be watching TV in the living room, then she could only be on the computer, or reading some book.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He went to her bedroom, where she usually would be with Treeck's laptop, the bedroom that one week ago was full of dust was now full of books, he knocked on the door but no response, he knocked one more time... nothing, he decided to enter.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The room was exactly the opposite someone would think of a girl, the only thing that could remind him of a girl was the comb. There were a lot of books in many languages, all of them spread across the room. French, Deutsch, Italian, and maybe others, Treeck didn't care much, although he recognized Holo as a very smart person.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Weird, usually she is punctual, didn't she say she would be here by now? She even left the computer on" Treeck sighted, he looked at the monitor, seeing all those shortcuts to online games he played before, it made him remember the reason why he was interested in this death game, not the motive but the reason, because he was deceived to play it like the majority of the players, he wanted to play a game where his skills are forced to his maximum, on the other games he already reached the top of the ladders, he was called "God" among the players in each game, since he had different nicknames in all of them, he didn't want people to know it was the same player.p  
>p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Treeck was lost in his thoughts when he heard the "click" on the door, he thought to himself, grinning "Looks like she didn't forget the key this time," but that grin didn't last much longer, he realized that he was at her bedroom. emoh shit...em/p 


End file.
